


The Seven Schools of Magic

by Zennistrad



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:18:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5896096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zennistrad/pseuds/Zennistrad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The following is an manuscript that was recorded in the distant past, during the beginnings of the human/monster war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seven Schools of Magic

Over the past century, as the human empires have steadily expanded their territory, our colonization efforts have on numerous occasions brought us into conflict with loosely-affiliated tribes of paranormal beings, known collectively to us as “monsters.”

Thus far, the monsters have posed little threat to our interests, their oftentimes fearsome appearance bearing little impact on their pitiful resilience to injury. Nevertheless, the human leaders have begun to grow fearful of their presence: the world’s top scholars have concluded that, should a monster ever kill a human and take their soul, the result will be a being with enough power to kill thousands of human soldiers single-handedly. From there, each new soul a monster takes will increase its strength exponentially, and should a monster acquire seven human souls its power will effectively be infinite.

In order to prepare for this potential threat, the human empires have commissioned the greatest minds of our time to research the force that gives monsters their paranormal abilities: magic. It is their hope that such power will allow our expansion to continue undeterred and stave off any threat monsters might pose to us.

Our research thus far has concluded that monsters themselves are little more than sentient conglomerations of magic, held together by their own souls. The magic that a monster wields in battle is thus no more than an extension of its own body: casting a spell is as natural to a monster as it is for a human to throw a punch. Our bodies, however, do not posses any natural magic within them, and as such we cannot wield it with the ease that monsters can. 

However, unlike those of monsters, our souls contain an infinite quantity of a powerful spiritual essence, which our research suggests represents willpower. Initially, humans are only capable of harnessing the bare minimum of this essence required to perform the everyday functions of living. However, we have found that through years of intense spiritual training, a human is capable of harnessing enough of this essence to shape it into magic of their own. 

It would appear from this that though both our bodies and souls are vastly more powerful than those of monsters, we are nowhere near as efficient at manifesting paranormal abilities. This would explain why a monster with a human soul is so unfathomably powerful: it not only possesses the potentially infinite spiritual power of a human soul, but can also use it far more easily than a human alone.

Over the many years of our research on the nature of magic, we have discovered that all magic can be separated into one of seven different categories. Because of the intense mental training involved in the acquisition of magical abilities, most human mages choose to specialize in the study of a single category. For this reason, these categories are referred to as the seven schools of magic.

  * **Illusion** : Illusion magic specializes in the creation of false images, and fooling others into experiencing phantom sensations of things that do not truly exist. Perhaps the most versatile school of magic, truly powerful illusionists are able to perform nearly any feat that they can imagine - the downside being that such feats are mere tricks, and one can only be affected by them if one believes in their reality. Illusions can be recognized in that they are a lighter shade of blue when compared to their surroundings, though for a truly powerful illusion the difference in coloration is small enough that it is difficult to notice.
  * **Apportation** : Apportation magic is magic that grants power over the movement of objects. The most basic skill of an apporter is telekinesis: the ability to move an object without ever needing to touch it. Additionally, apporters can also increase or decrease the speed at which living things are capable of moving, and create fields of energy – characterized by their orange color – that motionless objects cannot pass through without suffering damage. The most powerful skill of an apporter is teleportation, the ability to instantaneously transport themselves or others between two points in space. However, teleportation is dangerous for all but the most powerful apporters, as a failed teleport can leave one permanently stranded beyond the boundaries of normal reality. 
  * **Transmutation** : Whereas apportation involves manipulating the motion of an object, transmutation involves manipulating static properties. Typically, this involves altering the degree to which outside forces are able to affect an object: for example, a transmuter may be able to increase the effect of gravity on an object without altering its mass. More skilled transmuters are able to invoke more drastic alterations to an object, including the ability to transform one living thing into another. A transmuted object is recognizable by its dark blue coloration, and will typically revert to normal after some time.
  * **Divination** : Divination is magic involving the acquiring of information. In battle, diviners are able to discern at a glance the fighting strength of any given opponent, and are capable of roughly determining the amount of injury any given opponent will be able to take before they are defeated. Especially powerful diviners are capable of using their magic to read into the future. While doing so, they are engulfed in a purple glow and enter a trance-like state where they draw runes symbolizing events yet to come. While such prophecies are always subject to multiple conflicting interpretations, there will always exist at least one interpretation that will predict the future without fail.
  * **Healing** : Healing magic involves the ability to heal wounds, cure diseases, and otherwise rid either oneself or others of afflictions. Because of this, healers are an invaluable asset on the battlefield and have thus far played a crucial role in colonization. Healing spells are recognizable by their green coloration, allowing allied soldiers to easily distinguish them from otherwise threatening forms of magic.
  * **Evocation** : Evocation magic is the most offensive school of magic, with all spells involving effects that are purely destructive in nature. Elemental spells such as fire, ice, or lightning fall under this school, and the different elements are often categorized as sub-schools of evocation. Because of their destructive potential, evokers are the most commonly-seen mages on the battlefield, able to fell many enemy combatants with little risk to themselves. The most powerful evokers are capable of bypassing monsters’ elemental resistances by using destructive spells that lack any elemental alignment, firing bursts of magic straight from their own souls.
  * **Necromancy** : Arguably the most powerful school of magic, necromancy involves the ability to control death itself and the manipulation of souls. Necromancers are not only capable of capturing souls of recently deceased humans and resurrecting them as undead, but can also resurrect themselves as well. In some cases, they may even resurrect deceased monsters from their own ashes, transforming them into soulless abominations in the process. Curiously, the most powerful form of necromancy is temporal magic, though this may be justified as the inevitable passage of time is the single largest cause of death in the universe. Necromancers are easily the most feared of all the human mages, both by enemies and allies alike, as unlike all other schools of magic learning necromancy requires the abandonment of empathy and compassion. As a result, a necromancer will at best be uncaring towards others – treating them more as pieces in a game than as people – and at worst be outright hostile towards all forms of life. A necromancer is easily recognized by the red coloration that appears in their eyes: first in the irises, then later expanding to cover the entirety of the pupils and sclera. After several incidents where human necromancers went mad with power and turned on their allies, the study of necromancy has been strictly forbidden.




End file.
